Custom Gravestones

Easily make custom gravestones / tomb stones at home.

Don’t buy grave stones from the Halloween stores. They are tiny and usually garbage. I will say Target has had some cool ones made from some sort of a plastic resin. I have picked one up the past three years.

Go to your favorite home supply store / lumber yard and buy 2″ thick insulating foam board.

Buy a hot knife. Don’t use the wire type from a craft store. They don’t do well with the 2″ foam in my experience.

Cut the core shape with the hot knife.

Determine design. I found using a template helps.

I used a Dremel with a router attachment to control the depth of the cut to remove material for what I wanted recessed like name, year, details.

I used bak paint to fill the text sections.

I used a roller and some latex paint to coat them in grey. Check home stores for miss mixed paint as they sell it cheap.

I used some greens, grey, and black to texture the stone and make them look aged.

To create the hole in the bottom I heated a piece of 1/2 conduit and burned a hole in the bottom. Do this outside with plenty of ventilation. I am sure inhaling this is not good for you at all.

I use conduit as a quick easy way to mount the stones. Just pound them in the ground for placement and slip the stones over them.